The Other Side of Him
by TheMythicalGreninja
Summary: After Lily's parents are murdered, James tries to comfort her, but she lashes out at him. What can she do to earn his forgiveness? Crap summary as usual...


**I do not own Harry Potter.**

Lily Evans was having the worst day of her life-and that was not an exaggeration. It was worse than the day James Potter had humiliated her by asking her out in front of the entire school. It was worse than the day she received a letter from her father saying that her pet cat, Emerald, had died. It was even worse than the day Severus Snape had called her a...never mind.

The day had started out wonderfully. She was enjoying a day by the lake with her best friends, Alice Prewett and Marlene McKinnon. They had been about to go for a swim when Professor McGonagall had approached Lily and told her to come to her office. It was there that she had found out that her parents had been attacked by Death Eaters.

Her parents were dead. The people who had been there for her all her life were gone. Lily still couldn't believe it. How could they be dead? They had been planning Petunia's wedding just a few days ago!

"Evans?"

Lily looked up to see the one person she did not want to see: James Potter. But something was different. He wasn't giving her his usual cocky smirk or running his hand through his hair. Instead, his gaze was soft and full of concern.

"Are you okay?" he asked softly.

Lily snorted. "Just fine," she said sarcastically. She knew she was being mean, but she just needed someone to take it out on. And unfortunately, James just happened to be the only other person in the common room. "My parents are dead, if you must know. There, I told you. Now leave me alone."

"I'm so sorry, Lily," James said quietly. "Look. I understand-"

"Don't try to act like you understand how I feel!" Lily spat. "Everyone at this bloody school adores you! You have an entire fan club of girls stalking you in the corridors! You're rich, popular, and dare I say it, probably one of the best students here. So don't try to pretend that you know how I feel, because you never will!"

"And how would you know that?" James demanded, his eyes flashing. "How do you know what I've gone through? You aren't the only person here who's suffered, you know."

"I don't-" Lily began, but James cut her off.

"For your information, my parents were both killed over the summer. Sirius' entire family abandoned him just because he thinks differently than they do. Remus goes through hell every single month," James spat. "We've all known what it's like to suffer, Evans, but what do you care about what any of us have gone through? After all, we're just a bunch of stuck-up, arrogant prats who couldn't possibly have real feelings, right?"

With that, he turned around and stormed out of the common room. Lily wanted to call after him-to apologize, maybe, or to scream at him for being insensitive during her time of grieving. But he was gone too quickly, and she knew it would do no good to chase after him. She let him go, but his words stayed with her, eating slowly at her heart.

A few days later, Lily decided to try to apologize to James for being harsh with him. She scribbled a letter onto a piece of parchment and slipped it into his bag when he wasn't looking, which was painfully easy because he had refused to even acknowledge her existence for the past three days. After classes were over, she hid in the shadows of the common room to wait for James to read her letter.

He did read it eventually, when it fell out of his bag. Lily didn't know what she expected him to do-maybe find her and talk to her, maybe even shout that Lily Evans had written him a letter-but what she did not expect was for him to drop the letter on the floor like it had personally offended him and go back to his game of chess with Remus.

Lily was beginning to think that her attempted apology couldn't have gone any worse when Remus asked who had written the letter and James replied with three words that tore at her heart.

It was said quietly, but it didn't matter. She heard every word.

The words were, " _It doesn't matter._ "

Lily felt crushing disappointment well up inside her. She wasn't important to James anymore.

He no longer cared about her.

Lily waited until the end of the week to try apologizing again. She went searching for James, but couldn't find him in any of his usual hiding spots. None of the rest of the Marauders were talking to her either, so it wouldn't do any good to ask them. She tried asking around, but no one seemed to have any idea where he was.

Finally, after an hour, Lily admitted defeat. Feeling inexplicably depressed, she was about to go to the Astronomy Tower to clear her head when she bumped into a certain messy-haired, bespectacled boy coming down the stairs.

"Oh, Lily," James said in surprise. "I, er, I was just looking for you."

"You were?" Lily asked, hardly daring to hope. "Why?"

"I, well, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for being rude to you this week," James muttered.

"Oh," Lily said quietly. "Well, I came to say that I'm sorry too, for being so-so-"

"Insensitive?" James suggested.

Lily nodded, embarrassed. She wasn't used to apologizing to others, and certainly not to James Potter. "Yeah, that," she said.

"Well, I forgive you," James said quietly. "On two conditions. One, do you forgive me?"

Lily rolled her eyes. As if that was even a question. "Yes," she replied.

"And two," James began, "will you go out with me?"

Lily couldn't help chuckling a little. It was so typical of James to ask her out at the worst possible time-but then again, he wouldn't be James if he didn't. And why couldn't she give him a chance? She knew now that beneath his arrogant exterior, there was a kind heart. And she had found out firsthand how it felt to be ignored by James Potter, and it wasn't nearly as wonderful as she'd thought it would be.

"Okay, then," she said, smiling.


End file.
